The Plain Truth

Editorial

The New York Times

Published: June 17, 2004

It's hard to imagine how the commission investigating the 2001 terrorist
attacks could have put it more clearly yesterday: there was never any evidence
of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, between Saddam Hussein and Sept.
11.

Now President
Bush should apologize to the American people, who were led to believe something
different.

Of all the ways Mr. Bush persuaded Americans to back the
invasion of Iraq last year, the most plainly dishonest was his effort to link
his war of choice with the battle against terrorists worldwide. While it's
possible that Mr. Bush and his top advisers really believed that there were
chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in Iraq, they should have known all
along that there was no link between Iraq and Al Qaeda. No serious intelligence
analyst believed the connection existed; Richard Clarke, the former
antiterrorism chief, wrote in his book that Mr. Bush had been told just
that.

Nevertheless, the Bush administration convinced a substantial
majority of Americans before the war that Saddam Hussein was somehow linked to
9/11. And since the invasion, administration officials, especially Vice
President Dick Cheney, have continued to declare such a connection. Last
September, Mr. Bush had to grudgingly correct Mr. Cheney for going too far in
spinning a Hussein-bin Laden conspiracy. But the claim has crept back into view
as the president has made the war on terror a centerpiece of his re-election
campaign.

On Monday, Mr. Cheney said Mr. Hussein "had long-established
ties with Al Qaeda." Mr. Bush later backed up Mr. Cheney, claiming that Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, a terrorist who may be operating in Baghdad, is "the best
evidence" of a Qaeda link. This was particularly astonishing because the
director of central intelligence, George Tenet, told the Senate earlier this
year that Mr. Zarqawi did not work with the Hussein regime.

The staff
report issued by the 9/11 panel says that Sudan's government, which sheltered
Osama bin Laden in the early 1990's, tried to hook him up with Mr. Hussein, but
that nothing came of it.

This is not just a matter of the president's
diminishing credibility, although that's disturbing enough. The war on terror
has actually suffered as the conflict in Iraq has diverted military and
intelligence resources from places like Afghanistan, where there could really be
Qaeda forces, including Mr. bin Laden.

Mr. Bush is right when he says
he cannot be blamed for everything that happened on or before Sept. 11, 2001.
But he is responsible for the administration's actions since then. That
includes, inexcusably, selling the false Iraq-Qaeda claim to Americans. There
are two unpleasant alternatives: either Mr. Bush knew he was not telling the
truth, or he has a capacity for politically motivated self-deception that is
terrifying in the post-9/11 world.